This is the new development thread for the five Imperial Era campaigns, where all updates and discussions about the campaigns should happen. Owning the dev thread instead of just piggy-backing onto to Turin's should allow me to keep you all up to date with what's happening in the IE more easily. Without further ado, let me re-introduce (in chronological order):

Epic of Vaniyera
Current Version: 0.11.2 (April 2019) for Wesnoth 1.14
The expansionist Lavinian Legion, led by the Imperator himself, has invaded the northern forests of the Sidhe. It is up to the Thunderblade Faolan and his disciple Vaniyera to push its armies back from the border...

Up From Slavery
Current Version: 0.6.1 (December 2012) for Wesnoth 1.10
The year is... Well, the orcs don't know exactly what year it is. They are captives in the imperial city of Lavinium, gladiators performing for the emperor Optus Maximus. All it will take, however, is one orc to lead his people to freedom. The Samnis called Sparxus may be that orc.

Fall of Silvium
Current Version: 0.7.0 (December 2017) for Wesnoth 1.13
You are Caius Regilius, a Tribune of the province Silvia, located in the northmost reaches of the Lavinian Empire. This is the height of the Lavinian Empire - but the Empire has overextended itself. The city of Silvia lies north of the mountains of Arendia, and is sandwiched between the Marauders and the Sidhe... war is inevitable, and the province of Silvia will almost certainly fall.

Alfhelm the Wise
Current Version: 0.6 (4th Nov 2012) for Wesnoth 1.10
This is the tale of Alfhelm, called by some the Wise, son of Alfric the Conqueror. This is the tale of his victories over his enemies, and his rise to power in the clans of Marauderdom. This is the tale of his journey south and his destruction of the Lavinian Empire. And this is the tale of his demise in the dark forests far to the east of his homeland.

Gali's Contract
Current Version: 0.4.2 (April 2017) for Wesnoth 1.12/1.13
The Thunderblades were forged centuries ago - a monument to the skill of the dwarven craftsmen and the magic of the Sidhe stormlords. But now, Alfhelm the Wise, king of men, travels east, and he desires a new weapon - one that can overpower the legendary swords of the Sidhe. The dwarf Gali will gladly make one for him, for a fair price, but there are some who would object.

If you haven't met the Imperial Era before, or it's been a little while, I encourage you to download "Imperial Era" and these campaigns from the add-ons server and sample these ruthless and lethal factions.

Last edited by UnwiseOwl on April 16th, 2019, 6:32 pm, edited 11 times in total.

Progress is going well on development of Epic of Vaniyera, and I hope to have a new version of it ready for release on January 5th 2012, the fifth anniversary of the original posting of the campaign to the 1.3 add-ons server. I believe that I have now addressed every reasonable criticism that the campaign has received in those five years, and expect this version to be a significant improvement to what was already one of the finest jewels in the crown of the Imperial Era. #hype
If you have any suggestions for it, feel free to let me know.

I am pleased to announce a new 5th anniversary edition of "The Epic of Vaniyera", available on the 1.11 add-ons server. This edition has had some significant changes that are detailed in the changelog below. Most notable of these is the significantly easier gameplay that is now available, particularly in easy and moderate difficulty modes.

Playing 1.12.6 on Mac (medium for a change). In Tale of Vaniyera and even local games all imperial era teamcolor does not change as it should. I looked into the sprites and the color seems identical to the working tc, yet in the game I see only magenta.

Tale of Vaniyera works until scenario 3, there I get an error message and "no objectives". I added to screenshots because I am too lazy for typing now. (Screenshots from 1.12.6 version)

In 1.13 the whole era looks weird, but the teamcolor works in more units (rarely any Sidhe though). The Sidhe look like they all bathed in bleach. It may be the general brightness of 1.13 maps, but Sidhe look decidedly worse (wanderer and fighter especially).

That's so odd...
I've found and fixed the Siege Archer issue, thanks for pointing it out. I'll update the online version soon, but in the mean time it's the missing _ in the unit name in the cfg if you'd like to fix it yourself. That will render the era playable again.

The TC issues are probably caused by the fact that {MAGENTA_IS_THE_TEAM_COLOR} is no longer needed in 1.13, I can imagine that screwing with 1.12 (in fact it's a known issue), but it should mean 1.13 is fine. I've noticed this too and thought that I was imagining it, but it's definitely a thing. I'll look into it.

Sorry that you're having so many issues! I swear I've been playing ToV on loop for months and never have issues with it.

Last edited by UnwiseOwl on April 19th, 2017, 9:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

UnwiseOwl wrote:That's so odd...
I've found and fixed the Siege Archer issue, thanks for pointing it out. I'll update the online version soon, but in the mean time it's the missing _ in the unit name in the cfg if you'd like to fix it yourself.

The TC issues are probably caused by the fact that {MAGENTA_IS_THE_TEAM_COLOR} is no longer needed in 1.13, I can imagine that screwing with 1.12 (in fact it's a known issue), but it should mean 1.13 is fine. I'll look into this.

Sorry that you're having so many issues! I swear I've been playing ToV on loop for months and never have issues with it.

Haha, no problem. Happy if I can help. In 1.13 the fury has teamcolor, the other factions seem to have teamcolor, but raindancer, wanderer and others look pink.

I can't solved the weird TC in 1.13 right now. I think it's my weird sprites having strange effects, but I can't work out the problem. I'll have a play soon.
In the mean time, I've uploaded version of ToV without the problem (you'll need to restart the scenario), and a version of the IE for 1.12 that SHOULD have teamcolor. Hopefully. I don't know.

Tale of Vaniyera: A bunch of replays on medium. This was likely a little too easy for me, but on the other hand this was very hard on hard last time I tried (I did not manage to win the final then). And I was not up to challenge play. (Guess you rebalanced in between.) The final scenario is still harder than it looks, but then I did not spam ghosts, which seems the best strategy and especially the higher levels look hilariously overpowered.

Good: Sidhe, Lavinian auxiliaries (I like these little guys, best L0 units), balance, story is fine, the epilogue comes as a surprise, getting the whole roster in scenario 1 now
Bad: hard to figure out auxiliary conditions, the amount of triggered reinforcements in the final (feels a bit like a mainline campaign in that), almost too short to explore your unit tree, defensive slow on melee and range makes fighting high level lavinians painful
Question: What happens if I have less raindancer line units in the recall list in Remnants of the Past?

Thanks for giving it a play, Taptap, and glad you could finish! It's great to have someone capable play and give feedback.

1) Auxiliary conditions meaning it's hard to work out that Athus will join you and what you have to do to make him? Yes, I didn't make it explicit, but I think there's enough hints now. It's certainly better than before!

3)Too short? Possibly. It used to be one level longer, but the level detracted from the campaign so I cut it. I agree that you don't really get to explore the tree, but I don't think that's terrible. I think I'd rather have people inquisitive about it than bored with the faction be the end, and I don't think that there's enough solid really short campaigns. How serious do you think this issue is, should I think about adding another scenario somewhere?

4) Yes, the double defensive slow is devastating. Thankfully, those guys are few and far between, but killing the slow on the shield is one of the options that I have for the upcoming propugnator nerf. Believe it or not, the level ones used to have slow on theirs too!

5) Yes, spamming ghosts is still the answer in that level. There's a couple of nerfs incoming for them that will make them less ridiculous, but they're always going to be a heavy counter for Lavinians and the terrain is MADE for them.

6) If you get there without any raindancers then you don't get any, but seriously, who would do this WITHOUT them? That said, it's probably an oversight, I'll see if I can finaegle that WML to allow for them to be recruited if there aren't any.

Edit: Wow, you approach this in a much more robust and tactical way than I do, it's actually inspiring to watch. When I play Retribution, it's a full-on rushdown with high casualties on either side. I particularly like that you've obviously made an effort to really explore the unit tree.

1) Well, I read the file and I can't unread. The hint that the auxiliaries aren't really happy about their role in the Lavinian Empire is perfectly understood, but say when Athus dies to friendlies or gets retaliation damage then the condition does not trigger afaik.

2) It wasn't about the size so much, but the way you trigger them. Maybe exclude the leftmost village north of the river, you easily move there during scouting for gold and have a preemptive hippo invasion at hand (I did and reloaded). The scenario is long enough to work something out and it is not at all like the tomato surprises that put sudden orc assassins in your back, the reinforcements show up in logically sound places and I am warned about reinforcements.

3) No, it is fine. Solid short campaigns are indeed lacking and don't put something in for the sake of it being longer.

5) Since they are campaign only, you can just as well limit their numbers or do nothing at all. (I had four in total, three by the time I crossed the water, this was enough. + Auxiliary L2 skirmishers)

6) Yes, please. I wasn't sure, but it felt so much easier than I remembered and the code looked like recall only. Basically since recalling is cheaper than recruiting raindancer units, I don't have many spare ones in the recall list, when the player loses one or another on the way, he can end up very short, since there is no way to know how important even a L1 raindancer on the recall list can be. I also like wanderers a lot, so may have less raindancers than the next person or someone just experiments. (In the old version on hard w/ only 100 gold in starting scenario, I simply couldn't afford raindancers as I wished.)

One last thing, you said you liked the Epilogue. I'm soon to do a bit of a dialogue re-write just to put the finishing touches on it, so it would be handy for me to know what bits in particular you liked of it.